I am a nursing student interested in psychiatric nursing. I am also bipolar and have BPD. My issues are under control and I'm working in a very positive direction.
I want to work in mental health nursing because I want to help people who have gone through what I've gone through and because I think the field is interesting.
My nursing studies are going well. Am I out of line in wanting to be a psych nurse? Is it generally not a good idea to go into the field with mental illness, or could it be an asset if it's under control?
I actually found your post to be very disrespectful. I understand that as a nurse you always want to put the patient first and make them a top priority. So I know where you're coming from, but the things you said just definitely rubbed me the wrong way. Especially the last sentence. Who are you to judge my issues? I mean honestly...you aren't really aware of what's going on with me besides the things that I have posted. I don't feel the need to justify to you what I am still struggling with and what I have worked through, but rest assured that I am able to provide competent care for each and every one of my patients. I am currently a PCA (I see it referred to as CNA a lot on here) and there isn't a shift that goes by that I don't get a compliment from a patient on what a great caregiver I am. I care about my patients more than you could imagine. Even the mean ones that yell at you. :chuckle:
So please, refrain from judging others, it's just very tacky. I am an adult and I am very responsible when it comes to my job. There is nothing else in the world that I'd rather do than be an RN. That in itself is what keeps me sane sometimes. :)
I am unsure of what the person you are posting to meant by her comments. I suffer from Bi Polar Disorder as well. As a young nurse, my life was made miserable by the judgemental attitude of my peers. I had a mental illness which was something that a nurse was not suppose to suffer :angryfire from. I was able to function fairly well, in my professional life and kept it covered up from my peers because of their attitudes. There is a saying 'I only wish I knew then, what I know now'. And I only wish my peers did as well. There are times, during the course of our illness that we do not accept the impact it is having on our lives. And we need to be aware of this. And our peers need to be aware that we are generally knowledgable of our situation. And we are generally aware of when we are in need of additional assistance and when we are not.
I am a nursing student interested in psychiatric nursing. I am also bipolar and have BPD. My issues are under control and I'm working in a very positive direction.
I want to work in mental health nursing because I want to help people who have gone through what I've gone through and because I think the field is interesting.
My nursing studies are going well. Am I out of line in wanting to be a psych nurse? Is it generally not a good idea to go into the field with mental illness, or could it be an asset if it's under control?
Thank you!
Hi FrostedGlass,
Wow, it looks like you've taken some great steps forward with your illness. Congratulations on the work you've done! As I have a family member who suffers from these illnesses, I understand your acheivements!
Keep it up with your treatment, and I'm sure that you'd make a great psych nurse. Just be sure that you have support people in place, and keep your mind separate from your work. If you can, maybe you can get an externship (or internship? I forgot which it is, sorry!) in psych so that you'll know if this is the field you want to work.
I'm not a psych nurse, but I believe if you are careful, have everything worked out and you don't abandon your treatment plan, I believe that you would be an asset to a psych unit!
If you are working with a therapist, ask him/her their thoughts, and see if they have any words of wisdom.
Good luck, and I hope that everything continues to go well for you!
I am a nursing student interested in psychiatric nursing. I am also bipolar and have BPD. My issues are under control and I'm working in a very positive direction.
I want to work in mental health nursing because I want to help people who have gone through what I've gone through and because I think the field is interesting.
My nursing studies are going well. Am I out of line in wanting to be a psych nurse? Is it generally not a good idea to go into the field with mental illness, or could it be an asset if it's under control?
Thank you!
Don't be disheartened. In all the helping professions--Nursing, medicine, social work, and psychology--the "wounded warrior" is more the norm than the exception. There is an astute observation among people with psychiatric disabilities, that there are two kinds of people with psychiatric illness--those who have been diagnosed and those who haven't. Believe me, the preference is someone who is diagnosed and actively engaged in compassionate, supportive treatment (Jung believed that all analysts should be in analysis, including himself. He once quipped that even the Pope has a confessor and not a cardinal but a parish priest. The conclusion I draw from that is that all of us in the helping profession are vulnerable and to be in analysis allows us to reflect and assure that a trusted professional is watching to ensure there isn't a failure of transferrence, ethics, or individual symptoms--including our own fixed delusions about what nursing is and who should practice it). Indeed, the dangerous people--in nursing or any other profession--are people who have psychiatric illness and are not being treated because they haven't been diagnosed. Very reputable evidence confirms that, practitioners in primary care, miss over half of the people with psychiatric symptoms. And the only place you would be diagnosed is in the primary care setting, because people won't go to psychiatrists with symptoms (due to stigma).
Florence Nightengale was bipolar, and is the epitomy of a nurse who had the heart, mind, and skills to serve her "boys." She was houseridden so much during the exasperations of her illness, that her dreams and desires for the profession weren't entirely realized. She was, however, always a force--even when very sick--in the substanative and more importantly, in my mind, the political emancipation and development of nursing outside of medicine's greedy clutches.
Freud had some real issues with depression and substance abuse, and probably bipolar. Jung was no doubt bipolar, if not at times psychotic. There is no way anyone could produce as much as he did without being manic most of the time. Much of his deep pscyhology are very reminiscent of psychotic breaks. Unlike the movies, breaks with reality are usually not permanent and many people, including Maslow and Campbell, believe that the psychotic break is as much a spiritual experience as it is a psychiatric experience. Indeed, the complete psychotic break is a bonafide spiritual and psychiatric emergency, but felt by many to be a developmental stage to higher consciousness.
If one percent of the adult population experience bipolar every year (about 12 million people), you can be sure that at least one percent of nurses deal with bipolar every year (most undiagnosed and untreated). You can refer to your DSM, but I believe the best definition of bipolar was, indeed, from someone who wrestles with it:
"Manic-depression distorts moods and thoughts, incites dreadful behaviors, destroys the basis of rational thought, and too often erodes the desire and will to live. It is an illness that is biological in its origins, yet one that feels psychological in the experience of it; an illness that is unique in conferring advantage and pleasure, yet one that brings in its wake almost unendurable suffering and, not infrequently, suicide."
"I am fortunate that I have not died from my illness, fortunate in having received the best medical care available, and fortunate in having the friends, colleagues, and family that I do."
Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., An Unquiet Mind, 1995, p. 6.
Kay is in the helping professions and if she had waited for her bipolar to "be controlled" she wouldn't have received the education and experience needed to be a compassionate, wounded warrior to others in crisis. She continues to this date to wrestle with her symptoms.
Would you ask a nurse with diabetes to not work with diabetics until her diabetes was controlled. The journey and the techniques to control diabetes are from day-to-day. Everyone of us nurses could end up with a disabling condition, mostly back injuries, that is why we carry short- and long-term disability. The exacerbations of psychiatric symptoms that are no longer responsive to current therapy isn't a reason to not pursue your passion.
I am a person who is an excellent nurse and lives with schizoaffective disorder. I graduated with a BS in nursing with a 3.8 gpa, critical care internship, and inducted into the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. During all this time I was actively engaged with my treatment team and we continue to treat my symptoms while I work 32 to 70 hours a week. In addition, I'm a graduate student in nursing.
My advice to you, as an expereinced bedside nurse and a fellow person suffering from a psychiatric disability, is march on with a vengence. Take care of today. Ensure you invoke the ADA at school and at work if necessary, but don't advertise that you have a psychiatric disability--AS YOU READ in some of these postings, THE STIGMA OF MENTAL ILLNESS IS STILL STRONG. Sometimes the stigma results in discrimination--don't let the discrimination get in your way, fight it with legal action if necessary. This can be very burdensome for your symptoms and progress in nursing.
As an alternative, if your school doesn't support people with psychiatric disabilities, find another school where the Dean and faculty are supportive. Find someone, preferrably the Dean, who can be a champion for people with disabilities. Be honest with this champion and be honest with yourself about the course and demands of your disability, but don't let anyone stop you from becoming a nurse. First of all it's illegal, but even more important it's the right thing.
Concerning your thoughts about psychiatric nursing, if you've had a clinical in psych and that went well, why would you be concerned about working day-to-day with that cohort? I remember the first day that the hospital gave me the key to the psychiatric hospital where I did my clinical. My first thought was, "Wow, they gave me the key!" Caring for people with psychiatric disabilities is an awesome responsibility. These people are in the most vulnerable situation where abuse and maltreatment can occur. As an RN, you would be in a position to have an impact on the way people with psychiatric disabilities are treated in your milieu. I couldn't think of anyone who would be a better advocated than an RN who has personal experience of being stigmatized, abused, and maltreated because you have a psychiatric disability.
You are still on the beginning of your journey. You may find that you don't like psychiatric nursing. That's the great thing about our profession, unlike medicine, you can move from one specialty to another in a rather seamless fashion. I've made many moves into different specialties--critical care, acute med/surg, and psych. Each move, unlike Benner's ridiculous theory, isn't a start from the beginning. Now I care for geriatrics who have co-morbid psychiatric, medical, and/or neurological conditions. This blended role is very satisfying to me and profoundly needed in our communities.
personally, i think the best therapists, psychiatrists, psych nurses, psychologists, etc are folks who have been there, done that ... and are now keeping themselves well thru application of tested treatments.
you certainly should not be caring for patients if your own symptoms are not under control, anymore than you would show up for work on a med surg floor with a galloping case of TB (a limited analogy, i know, but useful).
you really, really need to be able to be objective however ... are you really well? how do you know?
i have worked with several staff members from several disciplines on psych units who were actively ill ... and they were truly toxic people, to patients and other staff.
grannynurse FNP student
1,016 Posts
I am unsure of what the person you are posting to meant by her comments. I suffer from Bi Polar Disorder as well. As a young nurse, my life was made miserable by the judgemental attitude of my peers. I had a mental illness which was something that a nurse was not suppose to suffer :angryfire from. I was able to function fairly well, in my professional life and kept it covered up from my peers because of their attitudes. There is a saying 'I only wish I knew then, what I know now'. And I only wish my peers did as well. There are times, during the course of our illness that we do not accept the impact it is having on our lives. And we need to be aware of this. And our peers need to be aware that we are generally knowledgable of our situation. And we are generally aware of when we are in need of additional assistance and when we are not.
Grannynurse :balloons: